Republicans Want the First Openly Gay Senator Out of Office

On Saturday afternoon, dozens of volunteers gathered in her Milwaukee reelection office to listen to Sen. Baldwin, Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin, and Jason Rae, the openly gay Secretary of the Democratic National Committee. While the meeting and subsequent phone banking were cheerful, the trio also spoke to what they’re fighting against in our politically fraught era.

Sen. Baldwin and Griffin specifically named the Koch Brothers and Illinois multi-millionaire Richard Uihlein as being the primary donors for the millions of dollars of attack ads.

When Sen. Baldwin won her seat in 2012, Wisconsin went to Obama. Until Wisconsin went to Trump in 2016, it had not gone to a Republican since Reagan in 1984. Wisconsin also has a Republican governor, Scott Walker, and a Republican senior senator, Ron Johnson, making Sen. Baldwin the most prominent Democrat in the state.

The GOP seems to be determined to take out Sen. Baldwin this fall. According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, over $10 million in outside money has already been spent by Republican groups against Sen. Baldwin or for candidates running against her, while only a little over $1 million has been spent on Baldwin.